Two Fronts!

On a spiritual front – the new bible study with the school teachers, and next week Paul and some of Lapoc bible teachers will be going to an area where there are supposed to be about 40 families wanting to be taught the Word!! The Lord is opening up more doors!! The name of the village is Lantod.

And on a substance front the Lord is also supplying and strengthening.......

 

This month about
19 000 fruit tree 
seedlings are being

delivered to over
12 different

places to give close
on 400 families a

boost and to give 
them another avenue

for providing for
their families. 

Also happening is a lot of building and the believers in San Aquino and in Tinaytayan are so thankful for the huge amounts of dirt that have been moved to accommodate room for future extensions!!  The cement courts outside the churches are in the finishing stages and in San Aquino a new building project is about to start which will provide accommodation for their missionaries, for outreach, for youth groups and conferences!

For Paul, all this building means an awful lot of planning and brainstorming on his part, constant checking of lists and coordinating of a lot of work happening in a lot of different places.

To keep this all going smoothly is nothing short of a series of miracles that God keeps doing for the furtherance of His kingdom and behalf of His people!

Please keep praying – for the new bible study with the school teachers on Thursday nights, for the meeting next week with the 40 families that want to be taught the Word, for safe passage on the roads as building supplies are brought up, for the loads and loads of cement and gravel needed, for strength and encouragement when the way seems to be getting too hard, for the lenses of our faith to stay focused on the ONE.......

A Unique Bible Study!

Last Thursday evening a very unique bible study started here! Unique because firstly it was in English, here in the middle of Tala-Andig land! 

Secondly it is unique because all the people who attended are professionals - this bible study is for all the school teachers from the schools in the surrounding area.

And thirdly it is unique because Ben and Leonie hosted and taught this Bible Study which is something new missionaries usually don’t get to do because of the language and cultural barrier.

It was a really great evening. Leonie and her team of helpers did a wonderful job serving a hot meal and making everyone feel very welcome.

Ben really enjoyed teaching the Bible Study and discussing God’s truths with the 27 school teachers who attended.

Many of these teachers we have known for years and are good friends with and we are thrilled about this! Please pray that nothing will hinder our coming together each Thursday evening to study God’s Word and please pray that the results will be lasting relationships with our Saviour being formed and firmly established!   

The Romans Consultant Check Is Finished!

The book of Romans has been approved for publication!!

Thank you so much for standing with us through prayer during these past two weeks and the many hours of work at the desk with our translation consultant, poring over each verse through the means of a back translation to English from the Tala Andig text.

Although it looks all happy and orderly in the picture above, things were happening that reminded us that our enemy does not want God’s Word to get into the hands of our Tala-Andig brothers and sisters and that he would love to hinder this work. Amongst other things there was:

1.    Sickness – the consultant got sick within a day or so of arriving.

2.   Spiritual trials and weakness – one of our key people on the translation team, Nanah, had some very serious spiritual trials effecting her family.

3.   Weariness – It was a big load having the consultant check going on in our home as well as our usual responsibilities.  

But because you prayed us through this time, and because of God’s grace, the consultant check was finished on schedule, and the Tala Andig book of Romans is now officially approved for publication – and will be available in print very soon!  

Praise God!!! We praise Him so much for His Word – for more and more of it becoming available in the Tala Andig language (and also for the Higaunon people group).

  

Another great bit of news is about 10 year old Jenita who has cerebral palsy. School started three weeks ago and nobody in her family seemed to be planning a way for her to go to school. Her little heart was despondent as she saw all the other children going off to school looking so cool in their school uniforms and so excited, while she stayed at home because her feet were too weak to climb up and down the mountain every day. But God had a plan for her and He brought her here to stay – actually it coincided with the first few days of the Romans Consultant Check (which for me was bad timing but for God was perfect timing!!)

During this time we were able to observe how she has progressed with her walking since her surgery earlier this year, we were able to open our home and treat her like a daughter, hear her giggles and enjoy having her cuddle up to us whenever she saw a chance, and we were also able to help her family work out a way for her to go to school.

God has been granting Jenita’s little heart’s desires in a series of amazing things He is doing in her life!! First in healing her feet so she can walk (6 months of living near the hospital, endless checks, surgery and then therapy) and now, He has provided a horse for her so she can ride up and down the mountain from her place to the school, and as of two weeks ago, she is now an official Grade 1’er, learning how to read and write like the other children, carrying a school pack, wearing school shoes, being able to WALK and play during recess.....like she’s longed to do for years. It absolutely delights us to have a part in what God is doing in Jenita’s life.  

So.....the Tala-Andig book of Romans....and Jenita walking and going to school....all in God’s Grace and all in His timing and all because of His Body working together in fitness and unity!! 

Isn’t this incredibly awesome?

Our New Grandchild!!

This is Jhamaica Leigh – our 3^rd grandchild -

born May 19, 2011 at 7:30 am to Udi and Jen

here in our home in Lapoc!!

Grandpa was busy looking after grandchildren number one and two,

feeding them snacks and telling them stories....

(and at dinner time – feeding Clint his vegetables!)

Grandma was busy looking after our newest little princess and after our daughter, Jen!

The labour was long but went well,

all of our family managed to survive the lack of sleep

and the few weeks of our household being turned

topsy-turvy by a new baby!

Charly and Clint love their new baby sister,

and Uncle Jubab is a proud new uncle although

he was suffering with a severe ear infection at the time of her birth.

 

Jen and Udi and family are now back home in Cauyunan

with the happy addition of their new baby girl!

After a trip to the hospital and a surgical procedure to his ear called a myringotomy

which he survived without having a general anaesthetic,

(OUCH!!!)

Jubab is now feeling much better as

he is showing you in the photo below!

Paul and I survived being doctors, midwives,

babysitters, cooks, 24 hour carers, story readers, snack kings,

and in between all that

we are almost finished translating the book of Galatians

(we are up to Gal. 6:8)

and this week with the arrival of our translation consultants from the States,

we begin our Consultant check on the book of Romans which will

take the next two weeks to complete.

So that’s our news!!!!

Lots of wonderful, wonderful news which we give praise for to our glorious Lord!!!

Seventeen Churches!!

We were going to tell you about our whirlwind trip that took place about

3 weeks ago......but then we had to stop and think,

“Can you call a trip whirlwind, when we traveled over

300 kms but only went

an average of about 28 km/hour?”

Well, that’s a question, but whether it was whirlwind

or not, we covered 325 km in 3 days,

and visited the churches at Pigtaw, Limondà, Cauyunan,

Tumpagon, Ginitan, Kulawingon and San Aquino!!

We shared from the Word!!!!

We praised God in song!!!

We discussed needs and developments with our brothers and sisters!

 

And caught up with friends we hadn’t seen in years!!!

In the end, we only got to visit 7 out of the 17 churches that the Lord has

built up to this date through our 24 year missionary journey

which started Nov. 27, 1987......so we have another

10 churches to visit on another ‘whirlwind but slow’

trip which will have to take place another time!

                The highlight overall, visiting all those places,

was to see first-hand, how God continues to grow His church in all these

different places – some we haven’t been to in years - and to marvel at

how God’s continuing work in people’s lives is beautiful and awesome!!

And even though these out of the way, hard to reach,

only travelable at 28km/hr trails have given us many hardships and difficulties over the years.........it is just totally worth it!!

Thank you for PRAYING!!

Thank you for ENCOURAGING US!!

Thank you for SUPPORTING US!!

The Book Of Romans Is Finished!!!

Just wanted to let you know the wonderful news that the book of Romans was finished last week and this week we have started working on the book of Galatians!!!

This is a giant leap in the progress of the translation of the New Testament into Tala-Andig: thank you so much for labouring together with us in this through your prayers!

It is precious to see the church here growing as they sit under the teaching of the book of Romans – being done by our co-worker Josh - and to see them reading the book of Romans in their own language!!!

First Children's Bible Story Book!!

This book is one of the exciting highlights of our year so far – the completion of our first book of bible lessons for children from Creation to the Ascension! The title is called “The Way of Salvation (written) for Children”.

It is the culmination of over two years of work by a team of 7-8 people, and is composed of 55 bible lessons, including memory verses, a song that goes with each lesson and coloured pictures and illustrations!

We are so thankful for God’s amazing provision of this for the thousands of children here! It may not seem so big when compared to the huge selection of Children’s Bibles and Bible story books we can buy in English, but this book is SPECIAL because it is the very first book of its kind available in the Tala-Andig language and it is now being used to teach children in 7 local schools and is also available to parents to use in their homes.  

Also exciting is that this book is the first that we have totally produced and printed right here in Lapoc in our own office!! (Usually we get the printing done out in the town but we invented a way to make a durable cover in here using cardboard with a picture attached to the front and laminated on both sides!)

Four young women worked together to write this book – ranging in age from 26-32 years old. Out of the four, only one of them finished high school and another didn’t even get to finish primary level education. Yet God enabled all four of them to learn how to use computers, and to learn how to do word processing, writing, editing, and formatting in their own language in order to produce this book of very high quality children’s bible lessons. The rest of the team involved were helping in the area of developing illustrations and pictures, final editing and production. 

And here they are - this is the team of women who worked many diligent hours each week researching, studying and then writing these bible lessons and producing this book. They have been concurrently working on the next children’s bible lesson book which is called “Strengthening Your Faith for Children – Part 1” (which covers the characters in the Bible from Genesis – Ruth) and “Strengthening Your Faith for Children – Part 2” (which covers the characters in the Bible from 1 Samuel – 2 Kings) and Part 1 is well on the way to being completed. The fourth Children’s bible lesson book they are planning to write is an overview of the rest of the OT introducing children to the Psalms, to Proverbs and to each of the Prophets.

Our role in this is the privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with these dear co-workers, helping them in the planning and studying stages, being their editors and also making sure their computers and equipment are all functioning well. 

These ladies each have a vital part in the team who labours in the Gospel here and we are so very thankful to the Lord for them – please PRAY for them and for the many others who are part of the team.